Optics contributes to NHS charges inquiry

Two representatives of the profession, spanning both the corporate and independent sectors, will give evidence to Parliament's health committee on NHS charges next week.

David Cartwright, director of professional services at Boots Opticians, and Lynn Hansford, AOP councillor, will go to the House of Commons next Thursday, February 9, to help with an inquiry into the payments patients make for optical and other services, some of which the committee describes 'have not been thoroughly examined for many years, and their rationale is unclear'.

Cartwright told Optician: 'They are looking particularly from the patient's perspective on what charges patients pay to access NHS services.

'In our profession it is slightly different because people don't pay charges to access NHS services, but there are people eligible for the eye examination or the vouchers. So I expect MPs to be interested in asking are the right groups of people eligible for an NHS eye examination or entry into the vouchers system.'

Cartwright believes one of the areas the committee will be particularly interested in covering will be why some of those known to be in at-risk groups fail to have regular eye examinations, and whether there is enough publicity of eye care as part of an individual's health regime.

'I hope there will be an opportunity for us to make some pointers to how they can improve the system,' said Cartwright. 'This would be particularly pertinent with the Health Bill and the GOS review scheduled this year.'

In a previous meeting of the Commons health committee last month, Ben Dyson, head of dental and ophthalmic services at the DoH, told a panel of eight MPs that the current system of providing NHS eye examinations - for a negotiated fee with the profession - worked very well.

In an as-yet uncorrected transcript of the January 19 meeting, Dyson told MPs that the total expenditure on NHS sight tests had increased by 50-60 per cent in the last decade, mainly due to the return of free sight tests for elderly people in 1999-2000.

Dyson said: 'We have what I think almost everyone would accept is a function of a service that provides a great degree of choice for patients, encourages a wide variety of providers, and, indeed, our minister Rosie Winterton has recently offered fresh assurances to representatives of the profession that that system will continue.'